Imran Khan is protecting 'corrupt' CM Pervez Khattak, says former K-P minister

Ziaullah Afridi says PTI chief is busy “provoking youth against the state” while K-P depts are on verge of collapse

PESHAWAR: Former cabinet member of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Ziaullah Afridi, who has recently joined hands with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), has alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan “is protecting K-P’s corrupt” Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, Afridi, who used to serve as the minister for minerals before being ousted in 2015, claimed all government departments across the province were on the verge of collapse, while the PTI chief was busy “provoking the youth against the state”.

“Imran Niazi should first clear himself from the courts,” said Afridi in response to Imran’s comments to a public gathering in Hyderabad on Tuesday night where he had called PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari “the biggest disease plaguing Sindh”.

According to Afridi, the case of the managing director of the Bank of Khyber who was ousted after he accused the Jamaat-e-Islami affiliated K-P finance minister of misusing his authority; the case of the government’s push to reappoint the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation chief who was ousted by the Peshawar High Court; and problems with the health department in dealing with the ongoing dengue outbreak were all evident of the fact that things were not heading in the right direction in K-P.

Earlier, PPP K-P Deputy General Secretary Bahramand Tangi said that despite being in jail for 11 years, Zardari has finally been cleared by the courts.

Tangi claimed Imran himself was involved in moral, financial and ethical corruption. “Even his own friends and members of the Parliament have been speaking against him [Imran],” he said.